Alchemy Press contributor James Brogden’s new novel Hekla’s Children has hit the bookshelves. It is a truly remarkable novel — you can read my review of it on the Piper at the Gates of Fantasy blog.

To celebrate the publication of the novel we are offering twelve copies of James’ short story collection Evocations (published by The Alchemy Press) free to the first six people who email by midnight today (Friday) and to another six who email us by midnight tomorrow (Saturday) — UK time — and please use this contact form with the subject EVOCATIONS. Remember to specify if you want MOBI or EPUB format.

Be afraid. Be incredibly afraid…because the Monsters are here! One man starts to suffer from a strange affliction, as another seeks knowledge of the future – with dire consequences. A young boy gets more than he bargained for when he receives a unique Christmas present, while a lonely man battles creatures that live in the darkness. And as a rescue expedition finds strange animals in the jungle, one man’s wife returns from the grave to be with him once more… Vampires, werewolves, zombies, witches, this collection of stories from the imagination of award-winning and best-selling author Paul Kane has them all!

Give Me These Moments Backby Mike Chinn is now available for the Kindle. The DRM is not set so you can reformat the book for an EPUB reader using free software such as Calibre.

For three days — starting Friday 13 March — the book can be downloaded for free.

Then it reverts to the normal price (the price of a cup of coffee in Cafe Nero).

A ring of external spotlights flared to life, revealing the floor of the Mariana Trench a few metres below us. The backwash filled the observation room with a cold grey light… As one, they gasped at the sight. I didn’t blame them – even though I’d seen it dozens of times, it still caught the back of my throat.

Donnie could feel himself beginning to shake. He clenched his fists, fighting the tremors. For a moment, he back-flashed to October last year: River Phoenix, on a Hollywood sidewalk, dying. No resurrection from the flames that time: no one was reviving dead movie stars.

The storm bounced the Oji-Maru across the ocean like a toy boat. Sky and sea were black; the only light came from the ship’s navigation lamps. Ishimaeru could barely make out the bows and harpoon gun. From somewhere he heard the sound of shattering glass. It reared out of the dark, vast and … and wrong. Nothing but bones…

Leinster Gardens and Other Subtleties by Jan Edwards is now available for the Kindle. The DRM is not set so you can reformat the book for an EPUB reader using free software such as Calibre.

For three days — starting Friday 13 March — the book can be downloaded for free.

Then it reverts to the normal price (still less than a cup of coffee in Starbucks).

Here are fourteen short stories from Jan Edwards, including the BFS award short-listed ‘Otterburn’:

Concerning Events at Leinster Gardens: He handed the maid his hat and replaced it with a coronet of silk holly leaves and tinsel. She gave him only the smallest raise of an eyebrow. ‘Ghost of Christmas Present,’ he said…

The Waiting: She picked up the hem of her night-dress and ran the length of the gallery. She wanted to race them to the door, to greet her father. Why, then, did a tiny part of her hesitate? Why should she be afraid? From the landing she heard the doors of the great hall being flung open…

The Ballad of Lucy Lightfoot: This had been in the planning for a very long time, for centuries – to the where and the when that the Wite had sent her. Across an entire continent to the edges of the Ottoman lands, to a place and time long before the Lightfoot name had ever begun. Her children, and her children’s children, for more generations than she could count, were dust. Only she remained.

A brand new Mike Chinn collection, Give Me These Moments Back, is due from The Alchemy Press next month. While you wait, why not read some of Mike’s Damian Paladin adventures on your Kindle… The eBook version of The Paladin Mandates is a revised edition — includes an extra story — and is available via Amazon. Details here.

Also available for the Kindle is a Paladin novella, Sailors of the Skies. Planes and monsters in a pulp adventure. What more do you need?